New Revolution in Healthcare
You will notice that digital health and healthcare are made for each other if you look closely.
Behind the scenes, experts are developing health tech digital that is transforming and streamlining healthcare services— these digital health and wellness advance aids in detecting and treating chronic and short-term ailments.
Because they help detect problems early, healthcare costs might be reduced dramatically, and services could be tailored to individual needs.
The COVID-19 incident has also highlighted the importance of digital health. Digital health technologies have helped the healthcare business overcome traditional constraints and processes, from remote consultation to intuitive smartphone apps.
If you work in healthcare and want to turn your regular practice into a profitable digital machine, you must first grasp the current digital health ecosystem.
Digital health, often known as digital healthcare, is a wide, multidisciplinary term that encompasses ideas from the interface of technology and medicine. Digital health incorporates software, hardware, and services into the healthcare profession, resulting in a digital transformation.
Mobile health (mHealth) apps, electronic health records (EHRs), electronic medical records (EMRs), wearable devices, telehealth, telemedicine, as well as personalized medicine all fall under the digital health umbrella.
Patients, practitioners, researchers, application developers, and medical device makers and distributors are all stakeholders in the digital health area. In today’s healthcare, digital healthcare is becoming increasingly important.
In simple terms, digital health is the combination of digital technologies (wearable devices, telemedicine) with health-related services to improve the efficiency of healthcare delivery. Healthcare becomes more individualized and accurate as a result of this discipline.
Patients can use digital health to make informed health decisions, get an early diagnosis of life-threatening disorders, and manage chronic ailments outside of traditional healthcare settings.
Digital health provides a comprehensive perspective of patient health, accurately detects diseases, and improves the delivery of health services to individuals for healthcare providers.
Importance
Digital health, according to Deloitte Insights, encompasses “radically interoperable data, artificial intelligence (AI), and an open, secure platform as essential to the promise of more consumer-focused, prevention-oriented treatment.”
AI, big data, robotics, and machine learning are all driving significant developments in digital healthcare. In addition, changes in the digital healthcare sector are continuing to produce ingestible sensors, robotic caregivers, and gadgets and apps to remotely monitor patients.
“AI will enable huge scientific discoveries, expediting the production of new treatments and vaccinations to battle diseases,” according to Deloitte. Consumers would be able to develop health difficulties with the help of AI-enabled digital therapies and individualized advice.
Diagnoses and treatment options will be influenced by AI-generated insights, resulting in safer and more successful therapies. Furthermore, intelligent manufacturing and supply chain solutions will ensure that the proper therapies and interventions are supplied exactly when the patient requires them.”
Benefits
Individuals can use digital health to monitor and manage chronic conditions and prevent sickness and reduce healthcare costs. It can also tailor medicine to each patient.
Digital health advancements can also help healthcare providers. Digital tools give healthcare providers a full view of their patient’s health by dramatically increasing access to health data and allowing individuals control over their health. As a result, efficiency has improved, as have medical outcomes.
Patients do not need to go via the hierarchy to communicate (receptionist, attendant, assistants, etc.). Direct communication with the doctor fosters confidence, and the patient does not have to be concerned about disclosing personal information in front of others.
Quick treatment – Digital health innovations relieve doctors of repeated tasks, allowing them to devote more time to patient engagement and monitoring.
Financial stress is lessened – Medical technology that is both affordable and accessible reduces the financial load on the healthcare practitioner and the patient.
Increasing the audience – Patients can easily schedule an appointment online or over the phone at a suitable time. It encourages patients to keep appointments on time and allows clinicians to see how many appointments they have on a given day.
Clearly defined patient profile — Doctors will be able to see the patient’s current health status in real-time. Information such as drug allergies can be entered, providing a detailed picture of the patient’s health.
Challenges
The digital transformation of healthcare has an impact on patients, medical professionals, technology developers, policymakers, and others. Due to the vast volumes of data generated from a variety of systems that store and code data differently, data interoperability is a constant challenge.
Additional roadblocks include data storage, access, sharing, ownership concerns, and concerns about patient computer literacy and the resulting unequal access to healthcare. Questions concerning security and privacy occur as a result of these considerations. What if, for example, a company or insurer wanted to collect information from direct-to-consumer genetic testing results for employees? What if a hacker gains access to medical equipment?
Two further challenges that must be addressed are technology and ethics. Who is responsible for surgical errors when medical robots are used, such as the hospital, the technology developer or manufacturer, the physician who performed the surgery, or someone else?
Digital Health Trends You Need to Know
Telehealth
Non-clinical services such as training, administrative meetings, medical education, and clinical care are delivered through the internet and telecommunications.
The World Health Organization defines telehealth as “monitoring, health promotion, and public health duties.”
Telemedicine
Type of telehealth that includes telemedicine. It entails employing telecommunication technology to deliver clinical services to patients who are unable to attend in person.
According to Market Research Future, the telemedicine market is predicted to develop at a compound annual growth rate of 16.5 percent from 2017 to 2023.
Wearable Medical Devices
Patients in the digital age are increasingly concerned with preventive maintenance. They want to be updated on their health frequently.
High-risk patients can be closely watched with wearable technology gadgets, and clinicians can quickly predict the possibility of any significant health event.
Surgery with the Help of a Robot (RAS)
Robotic surgery is known as robot-assisted surgery. That allows surgeons to conduct a variety of medical procedures with more control and flexibility. The process is most commonly linked with minimally invasive operations; however, it can also be utilized to execute some standard open surgical procedures.
Bioprinting in three dimensions
Medical gadgets, prosthetics, and transplants have been created using 3D printing technology. Hearing aids and dental implants are two of the most common 3D printing applications. This technology is also being used to generate heart valves, blood arteries, and cartilages.
This procedure has gained demand because of the global organ shortage and the widespread opposition to animal testing of cosmetics and other chemicals.
Augmented and virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) started as entertainment technologies. However, they are now also utilized in the medical field. Stress disorders, mental health issues, and other issues are treated with this technology.
According to Statistica, the healthcare business will be the second to reach a market share of 15% in AR and VR by 2025, with a value of more than $5 billion.
Analyze the data
Medical data gathering and analysis are aided by cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence.
Cloud computing has made data access and sharing much easier for medical businesses. Many people like this since it allows healthcare practitioners to access data while remaining compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Cloud services in healthcare will expand from $3.73 billion in 2015 to approximately $9.5 billion by 2020, according to HIMSS.
5G in the Healthcare Industry
The healthcare business is expected to be transformed by the next generation of mobile network technology, known as 5G. Fast transmission of huge data, telemedicine growth, and providing vivid experiences for healthcare professionals during training are some areas where 5G is projected to help healthcare centers meet the growing need for digital transformation.
Blockchain
Healthcare professionals have been developing methods to effectively handle electronic health records (EHR) for many years. The majority of medical information is stored in unstructured formats. Duplicate medical records, misdiagnoses, and treatment delays have resulted from this.
Blockchain in healthcare is predicted to reach $890.5 million by 2023, according to a market research analysis published by P&S Intelligence.
Conclusion
Digital health’s major goal is to make healthcare preventative rather than reactive.
Although several of the innovations highlighted in our blog are still in their infancy, digital healthcare promises to be a game-changer.
Many professionals in the healthcare industry are working behind the scenes to develop new technology. The current healthcare problems can be lessened or eliminated if they fully employ the advances highlighted in our blog.
